Toothpaste : Other Uses

Toothpaste

Toothpaste and its other uses : Introduction

Viral emails are a daily affair. Some consistently return to make you busy deleting them. Toothpaste and its other uses is one of them. You would most probably have read this particular viral email. So why am I writing about this? Just to make my personal comments on the tips that were given there about the other uses of toothpaste, apart from cleaning the teeth. I list below, the main uses of toothpaste to do chores that are not meant to be for toothpaste. In our country, toothpaste may not be cheaper than using the right agent to solve the problem. And certainly toothpaste is not the most effective substance to solve all these problems as toothpaste in the first place is not meant for these other uses. I would concur that as a temporary fix or immediate short term action toothpaste may come in handy as “first-aid” remedy. Apart from that I will still choose to use the right agent for specific jobs. If we have a better choice, why should we settle for second best? Be that as it may, there are a few tips that I would use the toothpaste as they appear to be most convenient and practical.

Other uses for toothpaste

Remove stain from clothes.

Stains like lipstick, ink and coffee are quite stubborn. I think using toothpaste for this purpose is a good choice. Just squeeze a bit of toothpaste on the affected spots, scrub and rinse. This should do the work.

Even out scratches on CD/DVD.

Apply toothpaste on affected area and use a lint-free cloth to wipe the application in a straight line from the center of the disc outward to the edge, as shown in the picture on the right.

Clean all types of jewelry.

Brush the jewelry pieces with toothpaste and rinse them under running water. You will see them sparkling in no time. This is especially so for your diamond pieces!

Clean silverware.

Give your tarnished silver ornaments and silverware the toothpaste touch. Give them a good brush and rinse under running water, and you get them shiny again.

Soothe minor burns.

The standard first aid treatment for burn is to splash with running water. For very minor burn I think it is harmless to use toothpaste. But for more severe burn I would go see a doctor immediately.

Remove water marks from furniture.

Use toothpaste to wipe away unsightly water marks left by mugs and glasses.

Remove crayon from wall and remove carpet stains.

A few swipes with a damp cloth with toothpaste will do the job. For stubborn stain, just repeat a few times.

Relieve insect/mosquito bites.

To relieve itchiness, spread a bit of toothpaste on the affected area

Keep baby’s bow on the head.

This is interesting. Can you really stick the bow on baby’s head with a dash of toothpaste?

Clean your nails, shoes, and around bathroom?

Use toothpaste to clean all these? Beats me.

Put up posters.

You can also stick posters with toothpaste. Put some toothpaste on the four corners and stick the poster up.

Smear toothpaste on the areas, and give them a good scrub. Then wash off with water.

As air-freshener for the car.

Instead of buying those expensive short-lasting car air-freshener, you can just squeeze an ample amount of toothpaste on any plastic base and place it in the car. When the car interior warms up the refreshing minty smell will be released from the toothpaste.

Dap a bit of toothpaste on the affected areas before going to bed. By next morning the affected parts should be dried up.

Prevent fogging in your swimming goggles and bathroom mirror.

Swipe a bit of toothpaste on them and wipe it off. No more fogging problem.

Clean piano/organ keys.

A dab of toothpaste, a soft cloth and some rubbing will clean up piano and organ keytops.

Deodorize smelly hands.

When you have fishy smell on your hands, squeeze a bit of toothpaste, rub and wash clean. There won’t be any fishy smell left. This also works on onion and garlic smells.

Deodorize baby bottles and rubber teats. You can give baby bottles and rubber teats a good scrub with a bottle brush with ample amount of toothpaste. Rinse thoroughly.

stripe/square at bottom of tube

Viral email hoax on color stripe/square

There are viral emails circulating regarding the vertical colored stripe/square at the bottom of the toothpaste tube. These colored stripes are supposed to indicate the content of the toothpaste. There are four color variations, green, blue, red and black. Green indicates content is natural, blue is for natural plus medication, red is for natural plus chemical compound, and black is made of pure chemical. Or some other variations.

This is an email hoax. These colored stripes/squares are "eye marks" meant for the packaging machine to identify the place to cut and crimp the tubes or indicating the desired color of print on packaging.

Comments

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Scot Nyman 5 years agofrom Indonesia

Interesting! Thank you again.

Author

Justin Choo 5 years agofrom Malaysia

Hi Tebo,

You are right. There is always a tube of toohpaste in the house. It may come in handy.

tebo 5 years agofrom New Zealand

Very interesting. There are some good ideas here and although you point out it may be better to use something other than toothpaste for some of these problems, most people do have toothpaste on hand at home, so it would certainly do for a quick fix.